high street

The Disc Jockey 82 High Street Hastings 1958 – better photo

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photo © Hastings Public Library

Judy Atkinson… Remember it well. It had a section for “underground ” music

Chris Baker… Judy, Groovy Baby! (Or Booby Gravy, as usual kids used to say!)

Stuart Moir… Was there a disc jockey in Queens Road, I’m sure it was opposite Barclays bank

Mick O’Dowd… Yes there was right up until it closed. At one time he had one further up Queens Road nearly opposite Jack London’s Record Shop.

Paul Cullen… Yes there was, I think that it had three booths you could listen to music

Harry Randall… Paul, correct Alan had 3 altogether The first one Disc Jockey +1 was up Queens rd but also had one in old town and one in Kings rd St. Leonard’s 2 and 3 later just the one in Queens rd nearer the centre of town

Chris Baker… Harry, Alan Jensen and his partner (his name escapes me now!), who used to run the Disc Jockey in the High Street were a great help to my Mum, Brenda when she started writing Lyrics. She ended up collaborating with Wout Steenhuis, a brilliant Dutch multi-instrumentalist who lived in Broadstairs and did a lot of multi-track recording in the early 60s and 70s.

Alan Esdaile… Chris, you’re probably thinking of Johnny Hodgson. He was the original owner and Alan worked there and eventually bought him out.

Harry Randall… Chris, knew Alan when he first started out he lived in Battle Road above sweet shop opposite Jones Fish and Chip shop both long gone now

John Gale… My dad Tony , was a living in The Croft as a teenager in the mid to late 50s . He loved that.shop and bought his first drum kit from there .

Trevor Spears… It was on the same side as Jack London’s a little further up the road!

Michael Armitage… Who was the chap, who used to work in the Queens Road shop, then went on his own, just above M&S, further up the road? Lovely man – my dad spent a fortune with him, and I bought ‘The Savage’ by The Shadows there, while dad was buying Peer Gynt! I did buy my first ever guitar at the Disc Jockey though – I think it was £6.00, but better than the £4.00 one… And, in the early seventies, just after we were married and moved to a flat in Priory Road, I wanted to buy, ‘I know what I like in your wardrobe’ (Genesis). as a single, and the assistant patiently explained that it was only available on an album ‘Selling England by the pound’! I couldn’t afford £3.50 then…

Alan Esdaile… I think your thinking of Jack London, Michael, as Trevor just mentioned.

Liane Carroll… So lovely. I can’t remember what year it closed. Does anybody know? X

Advert from 1958.

 

Hi Fi Club High Street Hastings – front door – who went to the Hi Fi?

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photo © Hastings Public Library

1968 Advert

Angela Frances Gardner… It was a great place to go after the pubs shut and eating the wonderful Jamaican food at Chico’s on street level before going to the Hifi club. I remember that Lou Reeds song Goodnight Ladies was always played at closing time

Jackie Hersee… I went there

Simon Fraser… I went there. If you breathed you were stone

Ian Watling… It was a great place to hang out, can’t recall many nights but that’s probably because I was having such a great time

John Busbridge… Downstairs from what I remember, I used to go there must have been late sixties or early seventies?

Diane Knight… John, got to be 70’s …I was definitely there !!!

Andy Qunta… Went there many times. I think it was there that I saw Paul Kossoff from Free and John Martyn one night!

Andrew Bantock… I’ve only been here for 32 years so I don’t know why there is a hole where the HiFi used to be.

Jon McCallion… Because they can’t replace it

Colin Bell… It burnt down in ‘mysterious circumstances’…

Jo Turner… Yup

Peter Fairless… Only went there a couple of times at most, very vague memories!

Judy Atkinson… My brother used to go there a lot, Roger Fullbrook, known as Jack, anyone remember him?

Lucy Pappas… I went a few times but it was my sister Dina’s favourite place.

Colin Bell… Many times, me & Caz could tell a few stories….

Nick Webb… Many a night spent there, and if you got to go upstairs you where well in .

Alan Esdaile… Great music, great times. We used to sit in the alcove seat at the bottom of the stairs smoking Disque Bleu and drinking what we could afford. Probably only 14 when I first went there!

Steve Burt… Yep went there wild place.

Lloyd Johnson… i went there in the 60s and helped paint the front of ‘Talkies’ cafe almost next door….Sid ran the cafe!…

Simon Fraser… Never remembered how I got home from there. 1970is

Sue Colebrook-Gentry… I worked there behind the bar from 1967 — 1972 and lived upstairs. Many happy memories. Me and the DJ Jack and a couple of regulars behind the reception upstairs.

Willie Wicking… Went there a few times with older friends but was there the night it burnt down can remember it well was in Wellington Sqaure & after the 5th fire engine went past went to have a look that was a real fire fire brigade had a difficult job must have been around 77 79 can also remember all the hoses across road into boating lake

Diane Knight… Loved the Hi fi …I used to go there with the Alderson crew ( all relocated in oz) ..such great times

Chris Meachen… Had some great nights in there, fabulous place.. Pretty sure it burned down on September 27th in whatever year…

Bernard Goffredo… that was a regular haunt

Lloyd Johnson… I remember Guy and his mate on a silver Vespa GS very early on when they first came down to Hastings during The ‘Mod days’…his mate had an accident and lost a leg, does anyone else remember his friend. He went out with Lis Parrish for a while..I remember Guy talking to Les Martin , who helped run The Pamdor about buying the Hi- Fi from Alain the Frenchman that owned it….that must have been very early on…

Colin Doherty… DJ’d there and lived upstairs for a few very enjoyable years!

Alan Esdaile… Better photo at the top, than before.

Chris Meachen… Loved the hifi, enjoyed many nights in there. I think I’ve still got a membership card somewhere..

Sparrow Baker… Chris, it’s out of date.

Dave Lelliott… Played a lot of bar football in there.

Sparrow Baker… ME ! Very often. Thank you Hi Fi for all the foreign students

 

Hole In The Wall pub Hill Street Old Town Hastings.

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Ray Barry… Remember it well,a Merrydown cider and bottle Brown Ale 2/10d. Circa 1963/4

Patricia Burgess… Ray, OMG haven’t heard the name Merrydown for at least 45 years loved that cider. Is it still made.

Ray Barry… Patricia, No the brewery closed some few years ago and is now a housing estate in Horam

Tony Court-holmes… Ray, my mum june used to drink that in The Anchor back in the 60s

Paul Reed… Is that street still there today or did it disappear if thats st Clements church in photo.Did I hear that area suffered bomb damage as well.?

Lynda Whatley… yes that is St Clements Church and the area was suffered bomb damage – and the church suffered too . My mother and myself posed for the local artist – when the church window over the alter was commissioned .

Ray Barry… The street is still there but the pub has long gone and is now a house. A pub round the corner called The Swan got bombed during the Second World War.

Graham Mccallion… I remember those days

John Wilde… I lived in Hill street during the late 70s and it was long gone

Eric Harmer… I drunk in there with Tony Davies , he lived in the Croft. They had bar billiards in there

Jacqueline Marsh… I went to school just behind this pub

Monica Bane… My Wedding breakfast there In 1960!

Tony Court-holmes… drank in that pub

Tony Collins… Whether true or not but I did hear that at one side of the top window of the Church is a cannonball fired from an enemy ship and the other one is made or stone to balance it up. If you look carefully one is rusted and the other is grey. Can anyone confirm this?

Roger Simmonds… Tony, Yes there is a cannon ball in the wall!

Roger Simmonds… I also used to drink in there in 1964!

Janet Mournard Russell… Used to go there often.

Mick Barrow… The Kicking Donkey kicked the hole in the wall, i think Ron French was the landlord

Don Cropper… A group of us bikers used to drink there and play snooker and billiards in the middle to late 60’s

Cris Kennard… I had my wedding reception in the Hole in the Wall Sept 1968 when I married my first husband (Roger Barnett who died in 1983) Don do you remember.

Tony Collins… Had my 21st birthday party there, I am 76 now!!!

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Hi Fi Discotheque High Street Hastings – 23rd December 1967

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John Gale… Hard to believe that existed when you see the size of the gap left there after the fire

Alan Esdaile… used to be packed in like sardines!

John Gale… so I hear,  just a bit before my time

Jon McCallion… It’s where it all started Alan as you would remember, I remember Fiona she invited me for the band.

Linda McGregor… It was nothing like a discotheque when I used to go ’76-’79

Malcolm Mitchell, High Street, Hastings closed photo by Anthony ‘Nan’ Morland

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photo © Anthony ‘Nan’ Morland

Phil Gill… Class outfitters

Martin Richter… all the army boots you could eat

Glenn Piper… veritable Aladdins cave of curiosity’s and lots of boots & great coats

Lucy Pappas… Bought my very wide leg sailor trousers from there! Loved Malcolm Mitchell x

Phil Gill… Lucy, You could have washed them before you turned up at the youth club wearing them though.

Lucy Pappas… Phil, I apologise for the fishy smell. Thinking about it, that would have been when we first become friends, 50+ years ago….

Phil Gill… I didn’t mind fishy, it was the beer stains from some Norwegian sailor’s night out.

Bruce Zebedee… Great shop

Colin Wells… Malcs bootique!!

Pete Blomfield… Datsun 100a or 120y?

Jeff McCall… Great shop, bought a purple parker from there, it had a bullet hole in it!

Gerry Fortsch… I remember that they sold every thing so one day I asked for a torpedo and they came up with one.

Fred Marsh… I wonder what some of our dfls would have made of it

Lloyd Johnson… Fred, Hastings is my home town.I moved to London in 1966 I went Ore youth Club with Patrick Mitchell who’s uncle owned MM .I opened my own shop/stall in 1967 in Kensington market a year later.In 1973 I was buying similar items that we’re sold in Malcolm Mitchell’s the High st,Baldocks and Winters shoe shop in George st.,Cyril Savages in Kings Road and Apps shoe shop in Silverhill by that time the stock I remembered from the early 60s was considered vintage clothing. I remember. buying an amazing W11 leather dispatch riders jacket from MM which I wore during my Art school days at The Brassey Institute above the Library in 1961/62…I guess you could say in some ways all those shops including MM were a great inspiration for me during my time. in the clothing business as was the whole teenage experience of growing up in Hastings with The Pamdor, Fiesta ,the trad jazz at the caves and the groups on The Pier. I think it is nice to see some new small innovative businesses bring some style to the town. The DFLs’ as you seem to call the creatives from London that have chosen Hastings to make their home. Several friends from London have moved to Hastings and St.Leonard’s and I think they contribute extra style and entertainment to the Town…..

Mark Syrett… Top shop

Mike Waghorne… Top clothe’s shop in the late 60’s Malcom’s boutique we used to call it !

John Mcewen… Best work boots ever!

Dave Nattress… Even us Bexhill boys knew Malcolm’s Boutique, always on the tourist may with the Trading Post

Jim Breeds… April 2021 view (Google Streetview)

Alan Esdaile… Jim, hasn’t got the same smell as the original photo!

First In and Last Out (Filo) and buses High Street, Old Town, Hastings.

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Photo: Peter John Morris. British Roadscene https://www.facebook.com/groups/496289463761461

Peter John Morris… Hastings in Trolleybus days

Chris Meachen… I remember buses coming the other way having to mount the pavement. Almost hard to believe that this was a 2 way street, & the main road through the old town..

Tony Court-holmes… used to live at 103a

Linda Gowans… An elderly fisherman told me (in about 1960) that you should have seen the traffic jams with horse-drawn waggons in the High Street!

Steve Hamilton… 52a here! Vague recollection of buses and arguments on the road. Arguments still around today no doubt!

Mick O’Dowd… Its hard to think High Street was two-way. I know there were a lot of close calls but nothing too serious I recall!

Claire Lonsdale… And there’s my old house on the right. Lived there for 17 years.

Peter Ellingworth… Photo taken in 1955 I believe, possibly the same day as the Pump House one shown previously. The guy that took it has this on the Historical Hastings site with an explanation. Unfortunately I can’t quite see the TB reg no., or from my records I could see what happened to this particular TB after closure of the Hastings system in 1959. Am I correct for the TBuses, at least in latter years, there was a traffic light control system for one vehicle only at a time working at each end of the High Street automatically activated by passage of the buses themselves?